Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 08:50:43 -0800 From: Ulf Zimmermann <ulf@Alameda.net> To: Marwan Fayed <s0121430@cs.laurentian.ca> Cc: Thierry Herbelot <herbelot@cybercable.fr>, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: disappearing mount points after install Message-ID: <20000123085043.C39472@PacHell.TelcoSucks.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.10.10001231120270.4690-100000@altair.cs.laurentian.ca>; from s0121430@cs.laurentian.ca on Sun, Jan 23, 2000 at 11:33:56AM -0500 References: <3889ECB5.9E75171B@cybercable.fr> <Pine.GSO.4.10.10001231120270.4690-100000@altair.cs.laurentian.ca>
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On Sun, Jan 23, 2000 at 11:33:56AM -0500, Marwan Fayed wrote: > So, as it turns out I have found the answer it seems... a bit of a fluke, > rather. I'll detail in short (if there is such a thing) so others are > aware. > > As Thierry (and one other I think) suggested, a DOS partition is required. > Before this was suggested to me I tried dual booting with a small DOS > partition of 2 megs to save as much space as possible. This didn't work. > Well, last night a chain of events forced me to realize that Win95, of > course, uses partitions greater than 2 megs and that I should try using > larger partitions (Thierry uses 20 on his machine). > > I first tried it with 5 megs... nothing. Then 10, 16, and still nothing. > Finally when I expanded the DOS partition to 20 megs it worked. I can only > assume this is how IBM manufactured their BIOS. And hey, it's 20 megs lost > but at least it worked. > > I'm writing this after doing a dummy install with the minimal option so as > to save time in installing. Let's hope my results aren't a lucky shot in > the dark so that I can now re-install everything properly! FYI: be also aware about how some notebooks do suspend to disk. Some Toshibas need <Memory in MB> +1MB free at the end of the disk to do so. Some other Toshibas make a file inside of the dos partition. Not sure how IBM or others do it, have only experience with Toshibas lately and haven't bothered to check on my Sony (does the Z505R even do suspend to disk?) > > Thanks for everyone's help. btw, who gets dinner!? <chuckle> > > Marwan > > ps. You all have impressed me so much that I think I will try to find ways > to contribute to the freebsd project (as long as it doesn't interfere with > school, of course <smile>) > > On Sat, 22 Jan 2000, Thierry Herbelot wrote: > > > Hello > > > > [-mobile trimmed] > > > > Marwan Fayed wrote: > > > > > > Hello, > > > > > > I am a seasoned UNIX user but have been using freebsd for only about 6 > > > months. I have posted this problem to freebsd-questions with no response > > > so, figuring it must be a bug in the install program i'm going to try > > > here. Oh, I would like to have traced the code to try to find the bug (if > > > one exists) but being a senior year undergrad with a full course load and > > > thesis, I have been left with little time... please forgive me. > > > > > > My problem is this. I am trying to install 3.3-R on an IBM Thinkpad 365XD > > > (although I have received mail from a man in France who is having the same > > > problem on a desktop). The installation runs completely smoothly but when > > > I finish and reboot the machine reports no resident O.S. > > > > This may be due to a faulty BIOS : some BIOSes do not like at all not > > having a DOS partition at the beginning of the disk (I have some HP PCs > > with just 20 Megs of FAT at the start of the disk to keep them booting - > > from <F2>, which is FreeBSD) > > > > > > > > After trying many different things (including messing with the MBR, double > > > and triple checking disk geometry, and using a Fixit disk to try to > > > diagnose the problem), I booted from the install floppy to the main > > > install menu. Rather than re-install all over again for the nth time I > > > just entered the label editor. The partitions were still there but the > > > mount points were lost. What appeared was > > > this: > > > > > > <none> 40M // supposed to be root > > > swap 84M // swap is obviously OK > > > <none> 651M // supposed to be /usr > > > > The mount points for each partition are recorded in /etc/fstab : what > > you are seeing is completely normal, as sysinstall has not read the > > fstab file from the root partition of your disk. > > > > > > > > This is clearly not what I designated so I tried relabelling the mount > > > points, writing the information using 'w' and exiting install only to have > > > the BIOS report no O.S. yet again! > > > > Try and leave a small DOS partition at the beginning of your disk, as > > said above. > > > > > > > > The machine is a P100,40M ram,810HD, standard PCI (as far as I have been > > > able to tell/test). Has anyone encountered this or know the problem? > > > > > > Thanks a TON! > > > > > > Marwan :-) > > > > TfH > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message -- Regards, Ulf. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ulf Zimmermann, 1525 Pacific Ave., Alameda, CA-94501, #: 510-769-2936 Alameda Networks, Inc. | http://www.Alameda.net | Fax#: 510-521-5073 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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